Didem Leblebici, M.A.

Office hours take place online. Please send me an e-mail for an appointment.

Research Interests:

• Language Ideology
• Human-Machine Interactions
• Conversational AI
• Multilingualism / Translanguaging
• Posthumanist Sociolinguistics
• Mediated Discourse Analysis

PhD Project: Sociolinguistics and the Entanglements of Technology: Practices, Negotiations and Ideologies of Multilingual AI Voice Assistant Users (Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Britta Schneider, Prof. Dr. Crispin Thurlow)

Read more about research projects at the Chair of Language Use and Migration here.

Edited volume

Kindler, Clara, Didem Leblebici, Giacomo Marinsalta, Till Rückwart, Anna Zaglyadnova. (eds.) (Forthcoming in 2025). “Un/Reale Interaktionsräume: Formen sozialer Ordnung im Spektrum medienspezifischer Interaktion”. Open Library Medienwissenschaft. Transcript Verlag. https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-7146-9/un/reale-interaktionsraeume/ 

Journal articles

Leblebici, Didem. (2024).“‘You are Apple, why are you speaking to me in Turkish?’ - the role of English in voice assistant interactions”. Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, 43(4): 455-485. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2023-0072

Rostom, May, Didem Leblebici (In Preperation). "'Alexa learned Arabic': A translanguaging and multimodal perspective on language and media ideologies". Discourse, Context & Media.

Book chapters

Leblebici, Didem. (Forthcoming in 2025). “Einstimmen mit Sprachassistenten: Einblicke in monolinguales Bias in mehrsprachigen Settings.”. In: Horst, Dorothea & Rita Vallentin (eds.) Sprache entgrenzen: Überlegungen zu einer kulturwissenschaftlichen Linguistik. Transcript Verlag. https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-7061-5/sprache-entgrenzen/?c=310033993

Schneider, Britta, Didem Leblebici (Forthcoming). “English Entanglements in Digital and AI Technologies – Voice Assistant Use and Smartphone Setting Choices of Translingual Speakers in Berlin”. In: Lee, Jerry Won & Sofia Rüdiger (eds.) Entangled Englishes. Routledge.

Leblebici, Didem (Forthcoming in 2024). “Stylising the ideal user: Insights into experiences of Turkish voice assistant users in Germany”. In: Habscheid, Stefan; Tim Hector; Dagmar Hoffmann and David Waldecker (eds.) Voice Assistants in Private Homes. Media, Data and Language in Interaction and Discourse. Transcript Verlag. https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-7200-8/voice-assistants-in-private-homes/?c=313000000

Academic Blog Entries and Other Publications

Lau, Mandy, Didem Leblebici, Britta Schneider. 2022. “Sound-based corpora - histories, sources, biases”. In: Schneider, Britta & Bettina Migge (eds.) Changing Language Ideological Concepts in the Human-Machine Era – Questions, Themes and Topics. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.25867.36649

since October 2021 - PhD Candidate at European University Viadrina

January - May 2024 - Visiting PhD Student / Erasmus+ Trainee at University College Dublin (under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Bettina Migge)

2019-2021 - Master of Arts in Language - Media Society at European University Viadrina
M.A. Thesis: "Language Ideologies in Human-Machine Interaction: A Qualitative Study with Voice Assistant Users"
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Britta Schneider & Dr. Rita Vallentin
Final grade: 1,1 Distinction/mit Auszeichnung

2015-2019 - Bachelor of Arts in English Studies & Media Studies at the University of Bonn
B.A. Thesis: "Gender stereotypes and postfeminism: An analysis of selected digital lifestyle publications on Instagram"

Awards

2023 - First Place in Moodle Competition in Teaching
awarded by Zentrum für Lehre und Lernen in Viadrina

2021 - DAAD Prize for outstanding achievements of international students studying at German universities
awarded by European University Viadrina

• Language, Migration and Social Media (WS 24/25)
• Language and Smartphones (WS 23/24)
• Language in the Human-Machine Era (SS 23)
• Pragmatics: Language, Context and Meaning (WS 22/23 + SS 24)
• Fundamental Concepts of Sociolinguistics (SS 22)
• Language Theories - Approaches and Schools of Modern Linguistics (WS 21/22)
• Schreibdidaktisches Tutorium für die Vorlesung "Einführung in die Kulturwissenschaften" bei Prof. Klaus Weber (WS 20/21,SS20,SS21)

Conference and panel organization

10-12 July 2024 - Panel “Negotiating (Non)Humanness. Drawing and Crossing Boundaries between Humans and Others”
Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines in Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
with Miriam Lind, Britta Schneider, Theresa Schweden, Lena Späth und Rita Vallentin

21 June 2024 - PhD Viadrilinguistics Summer Workshop for Postgraduate Students at European University Viadrina 
with David Pappalardo

4-5 November 2022 - Graduates' Conference “un:real Spaces of Interaction. Forms of Social Order in the Spectrum of Media-specific Interaction”  in Potsdam / an event within the ZeM’s annual focus on “Digital Realities”
with Clara Kindler-Mathot, Giacomo Marinsalta, Till Rückwart, Anna Zaglyadnova

October 2020 - Poster session in “B/Ordering Cultures” Conference. Organised by the Cultural Studies Society (KwG) in European University Viadrina

Talks in conferences and workshops

07/2024 "Multilingual Entanglements in AI Voice Assistant Technologies" 
Summer School Technography in TU Dortmund

07/2024 "Language Ideological Perspectives on Human-AI Boundaries"
Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines in Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

04/2024 “Multilingual Entanglements in AI Voice Assistant Technologies”
Graduate Conference School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics in University College Dublin, Ireland

03/2024 Invited talk with May Rostom: "'Alexa learned Arabic': A translanguaging and multimodal perspective on language and media ideologies" 
COST Action Network Language in the Human-Machine Era - Working Group 6: Ideologies, beliefs and attitudes (Online talk)

10/2023 with May Rostom: "'The dialect is provocative, how can they not put it in Egyptian?': Metalinguistic comments about the voice assistant Alexa on YouTube"
Approaches to Digital Discourse Analysis 4 (Klagenfurt, Austria)

07/2023 "Alexa in multilingual polymedia environments: A case study on the role of smartphones in voice assistant interactions"
The 18th International Pragmatics Conference (Brussels, Belgium)

05/2023 "Implications of Monolingual Bias in Superdiverse Societies" (Poster)
Speech Technology Summer School University of Groningen (Leeuwarden, Netherlands)

11/2022 Panel discussion on Conversational AI
Moderation of the panel with the guests Timo Kaerlein, Marie-Theres Fester-Seeger, and Tim Hector
Graduates’ Conference “un:real spaces of interaction” (University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, Germany)

07/2022 "Constructing Language(s) and AI in Voice Assistant Interactions of Turkish-Speaking Users"
2nd International Whole Action Conference Language in the Human-Machine Era (Jyväskylä, Finland)

06/2022 "Language Ideologies in Human-Machine Interactions" 
Language in the Human-Machine Era Training School (Porto, Portugal)

05/2022 "Language Ideologies in Voice Assistant Interactions: Cultural Constructions of Humans, Machines and Language in Multilingual Settings" 
Posthumanismus. Transhumanismus. Jenseits des Menschen? 7. Jahrestagung der Kulturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft / (Graz, Austria)

03/2022 Presentation of PhD Project in Winter School of Sociolinguistics (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)

08/2021 "Digital Borders in the Age of Alexa"
International Summer School "Borders and Migration in Digital Times" - The Viadrina Center B/Orders in Motion

05/2021 "Posthumanist Approaches to Language in Digitalized Societies"
69. Studentische Tagung Sprachwissenschaft + 30. Tagung der Computerlinguistikstudierenden Leipzig / Online

Peer reviewer for journal:

• AI & Society